Southern Africa

Southern Africa

Southern Africa has been plagued by water shortages in recent years. WLE has been studying and mapping the groundwater potential for irrigation, industry and household use. This resource, if managed correctly, has the potential to mitigate some of the water shortage problems. In addition, the potential of small scale irrigation schemes that combine both surface and groundwater can make the region more food secure and resilient to the impacts of water shortages.

Groundwater management

There is great groundwater potential in southern Africa but the general understanding of the availability and potential for the resource is poor, making effective decision making difficult. The sustainability and longevity of groundwater use depends on good management and governance. WLE has been studying and mapping the potential of the groundwater resource use for irrigation, industry and households. Providing the evidence base and tools for understanding groundwater quality and quantity can help mitigate major fluctuations in water availability and reduce risks for both urban and rural areas.

By Hua Xie and Claudia Ringler of IFPRI. The number of food-insecure people in Africa South of the Sahara remains unacceptably high and is set to increase as a result of climate change and weak agricultural and economic growth. According to the 2018 Global Food Policy Report, an additional 38 million people are projected to be at risk of hunger in 2050 as a result of climate change-induced slowdowns and disruptions in agriculture in the region—25 percent more than would be at risk in the absence of climate change.

Irrigated agriculture can contribute to lasting deterioration of groundwater quality, preventing its use for drinking and endangering ecosystems and bio-diversity. If we're going to get global agriculture right, we'll need to promote good groundwater governance.

IWMI used an integrated management support tool called GRiMMS to assess and map the groundwater drought risk in the Southern Africa region. Groundwater drought risk refers to diminished groundwater access and availability.

IWMI scientists have developed a map and inventory that shows the presently known transboundary aquifers in Africa. The map includes 80 aquifers and aquifer systems superimposed on 63 international river basins.

Irrigation and smallholders

In May of 2018, Cape Town approached 'day zero' when the city was projected to run out of water. While there were major implication for industry, tourism and agriculture, drastic water management measures were able to avert this catastrophe. WLE researchers have been exploring ways to improve water management to reduce economic losses, particularly for smallholders.

Water experts estimate that only 4 to 7 percent of arable land is irrigated in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the lowest ratio across the world. A new special series on small-scale communal irrigation in South-Eastern Africa is calling for donors to develop a viable, sustainable and inclusive business model for small-scale public irrigation schemes in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Irrigation schemes in Southern Africa have an astounding rate of failure. A new report, released by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), looks why this is and what factors need to be in place to make these developments successful.The report was produced as a result of the project, Enhanced Regional Food security through increased agricultural productivity to sustainably reduce hunger, which was supported by USAID and WLE.

Study after study has shown that a lack of affordable credit to purchase pumps is the number one reason why more farmers in sub-Saharan Africa don't adopt irrigation. Until farmers find a way around it, there is a danger that the emerging revolution in smallholder irrigation could stall.

In recent years, the mitigation of climate change and the improvement of soil fertility by sequestering carbon in the soil has become a hot research topic. The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), supported by WLE, have had great success in developing projects to provide individual farmers and extension officers with soil information of relevance for their management decisions, meeting an increasing need for spatial data on soil properties at multiple scales.

Small-scale irrigation has been lauded as key to building climate resilience by changing Zimbabwean governments, yet it has often failed in the past. Now, new and easy-to-use tools and recently introduced opportunities to experiment and solve problems in collaboration with others allow farmers to become more efficient and their farms more profitable.